


i hear you like a whisper

by bumblebeecupcake



Category: Cabaret - Kander/Ebb
Genre: Character Study, F/F, Feelings, Girls Kissing, Sort Of, anyhoo theyre in love let em be, rosie has a lot of feelings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-10
Updated: 2018-04-10
Packaged: 2019-04-20 22:19:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,523
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14270727
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bumblebeecupcake/pseuds/bumblebeecupcake
Summary: The night is ending, the shows are over, and the Kit Kat Klub is empty but for a few lonely drunks and two girls dancing in the dressing room backstage.





	i hear you like a whisper

The club was always loneliest when the shows ended.

The orchestra had left for the night, packed up their instruments and papers and stands, and everything had gone quiet but for the few lonely drunks at the bar, too hammered or sad to get themselves home. Backstage was the strangest; gone was the cheerful laughter, the clink of glass and the gramophone’s constant loop of Glenn Miller. Most of the performers had already left, but a few remained. Herman, who lived a few floors up, had established a place at the bar for the night; Lulu, waiting for a call, examined her nails in the chaise lounge backstage; and Rosie, next to her, slowly sipped at a chipped mug of coffee. Her ride, an older man by the name of Friedrich Lange, has failed to show up, and so she sat with Lulu and her coffee. Usually they would talk, and laugh, and hold eye contact a little longer than necessary, and sometimes Rosie would bring up Lulu’s performances just to see her blush- but tonight, they sat in silence on the chaise, knees touching. 

The air felt a little strained, a little charged, like taffy stretched too thin. It was strange, Rosie thought- they had an act together, a two-person dance that involved a lot of hips and hands, but it had started to feel less like an act and more like Rosie’s heart laid bare.

Rosie looked at the clock. Granted, it was broken, but it read 3:14 and she guessed by the emptiness and the dark outside that that was about right. She glanced over at Lulu. Her friend had taken her blonde hair out of the pigtails she wore for shows, and it fell in loose waves around her slim shoulders. There was a smudge of paint on her jaw that she must have forgotten. 

As if sensing Rosie’s eyes on her, Lulu turned. “You waiting for a call, too?”

“No. My ride didn’t show.”

“Bummer. Was he cute?”

“Mm. Maybe.” She didn’t want to talk about it with  _ Lulu. _

“Not your type?” Lulu guessed.

She shrugged. “I’m just not into dinosaurs.”

Lulu laughed. “Shit. What  _ is  _ your type? Wait, wait. Just out of us-” she gestured around the dressing room, “-who’d you do? Girls count too.”

_ Shit.  _ Rosie pretended to think, though she already knew her answer. “Viktor,” she said decidedly, “or Texas.”

“Both solid choices. Me, I’d do myself. Or Fritzie. She’s got those eyes, you know.” Lulu fanned herself, grinning.

“Texas is from  _ America,  _ though,” Rosie laughed, pronouncing it the way their Emcee would during performances. “How exotic.”

“Oh, yes, I forgot! It’s not like we’re reminded every night or anything,” Lulu nudged Rosie’s side. Rosie set her coffee down and nudged her back. “ _ And _ she’s a very-”

“- _ cunning linguist _ ,” Lulu made her index and middle fingers into a V and put them up to her mouth, puckering her lips and wiggling her eyebrows at Rosie, who laughed even harder and elbowed her friend in the ribs. Lulu mimed fainting into Rosie’s arms, whining. “I’ve been hurt! Rosie, call for a surgeon- I fear I shall not live much longer!”

Rosie shifted Lulu’s weight onto one shoulder and poked her stomach through her negligee, and Lulu shrieked and rolled off her, giggling. “You bitch! Waiting till I’m incapacitated to attack- ruthless! Ladies and gentlemen alike, beware the fearsome Rosie!” 

Rosie leaned over her, smiling widely, and Lulu’s eyes darkened. There was a strand of blonde hair that hung over Lulu’s cheek, and Rosie had to suppress the urge to brush it away.

Lulu sat up suddenly, nearly knocking her forehead into Rosie’s. “C’mere.”

“I’m already here.”

Lulu stood, moving to the gramophone and the crate beside it, and selected a record. “ _ Here _ , then.”

Rosie stood up, suddenly wary. She studied Lulu’s face “I’m a little scared this is a secret death trap.”

Lulu scoffed. “Me? Luring  _ you  _ to an untimely death? Never.”

Lulu turned away, and the air felt like it had before: charged with something, stretched threadbare between the two of them. Rosie watched as Lulu put on the track, something harmonical and sweet. She watched Lulu watch the record, and took the time to study her: blonde hair, freckles on her shoulders, that damn negligee that hit her mid-thigh and didn’t leave much to the imagination. Rosie suddenly felt very self-conscious.

“Lu, what are you looking for?”

Lulu paused at that, and then she looked at Rosie and their eyes met, Lulu’s hazel and Rosie’s green. “A dance.”

“I- what?”

Lulu took a breath. “A dance. With you.”

_ Holy shit. _

Rosie’s mind felt a little numb. “I- yes. I’d like that.”

Lulu moved a little closer, and there was this thing in her eyes, and Rosie’s heart was pounding. Lulu took one of Rosie’s hands, then the other, and then, agonizingly slowly, moved closer until they were inches apart.

_ God,  _ Rosie thought.

“Your hands are warm,” Lulu said, her eyes fixed on a point somewhere above Rosie’s shoulder.

“Yours too.”

Her heart was doing this funny thing in her chest.

They swayed gently as the Boswell sisters sang that  _ gee, they’d like to make you happy  _ and Rosie studied the freckles across Lulu’s nose and cheekbones, that spot of paint on her jaw.

Lulu looked at her then, and gently slid her hand up Rosie’s arm to the sleeve of her shirt, twisting her fingers in the fabric.

“Hey,” Rosie said, and then Lulu kissed her.

Rosie’s breath caught, and she leaned into Lulu even more. She reached up and brushed Lulu’s hair back, and Lulu pulled away.

Rosie looked at her. Lulu looked back.

_ Again,  _ Rosie realized.  _ She wants me to kiss her again. _

She leaned in, and they met in the middle. Lulu kissed like she danced; slow, languid, taking Rosie apart piece by piece. 

They kissed again. Rosie felt it in her hands, the ends of her hair, the pit of her stomach. 

The phone rang.

Lulu pulled back. “Shit. I think- if it’s mine, I-”

“No, yeah,” Rosie said quickly, “I get it. Um, go ahead.”

“Thanks, Rose.” Lulu picked up the phone, and Rosie took that time to duck into the boys’ changing room. 

_ Shit.  _ She’d kissed Lulu.  _ Lulu  _ had kissed  _ her.  _ Her mind was a little numb, still fixated on Lulu’s hand on her shoulder and Lulu’s mouth on hers. 

It’s not like she hadn’t thought about this; she had, more than she thought was necessary sometimes, but it always came down to the same thing- that she liked Lulu, and Lulu didn’t, maybe couldn’t, feel the same. She’d had fantasies, of course, that came when she lingered on the line between dream and sleep; but it wasn’t like she’d ever expected them to actually  _ happen.  _ It would be hard, she knew, if Lulu was as serious as she was; they’d have to be secret, especially outside the Kit Kat Klub, and God, she was overthinking this. They’d kissed three times.  _ It might not mean anything,  _ she thought.  _ She could be just another lonely girl looking for a fling, something to take her away for a night and never look back on again.  _

The thing was, Rosie didn’t want just a fling. What she wanted was this: a flat in Paris or London with just the two of them, where they’d come home and Rosie would fall asleep against Lulu’s side; to make out with Lulu and maybe, if she was lucky, get past that negligee; to hold Lulu’s hand on the street and not feel guilty or strange or wrong.

The click of the phone hanging up jolted her back to reality; after a moment, Lulu joined her in the boys’ dressing room, holding a mug.

“I brought your coffee back,” Lulu said. “Kinda tastes like cold shit now, but I didn’t know…” She trailed off, then sat down on the vanity, handing Rosie the coffee. Their hands brushed.

“Lu,” Rosie said. 

“I know,” she replied. 

Rosie whispered, “What are we doing?”

Lulu raised her eyebrows. “What do you  _ want  _ to be doing?”

“I don’t- Lu.” Rosie sat down next to the other girl on the vanity, letting their thighs touch. “I wanna- I  _ need  _ to know what this means.”

Lulu shrugged.

“What does that mean.”

“It means- I dunno, Rosie, what do you want me to say?”

“Is this just a fling, Lu? I need to know what this is to you.”

Lulu paused. She looked at Rosie, and Rosie looked back. Her face was complicated.

“Lulu.”

“Rosie, just- I like you. I like you so much.” She looked away, and maybe it was just the light, but Rosie thought her eyes looked red.

“Hey.” Rosie reached for Lulu’s hand, and Lulu took it. 

“This isn’t just a fling, Rosie. You-  _ this  _ means something. To me.”

_ God. _

“Me too,” Rosie said quietly. “I mean, I want this too.”

Lulu looked at her again. Her eyes  _ were  _ a little red. “Good.”

Rosie laughed, and Lulu slowly joined in.

“Can I kiss you now?” Rosie asked.

“Abso-fucking-lutely you can,” Lulu replied, still smiling.

And so she did.

**Author's Note:**

> hi i love these girls and there's a severe lack of rosie/lulu and cabaret content in general so expect more from me thx   
> feel free 2 leave kudos if u liked !!  
> luv n kisses ♡


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